Well I was totally barking up the wrong tree in my last post, and it never feels better than it does to be wrong in your pessimism. New Zealand defeated Sri Lanka by a good 38 runs and showed that they still know how to play the game better than most.
It was a classic victory in the Black Caps mould – a great top-order partnership, a wagging tail, tight bowling and good fielding. It even fitted in a couple of other NZ signatures with a batting collapse and a saving innings by Vettori, creating a donut shaped innings with a 12-over, 6-wicket, 3-RPO hole in the middle.
I am forced to reconsider my negative assessment in my previous post.
This was incidentally the 18th time we have scored over 300 runs setting a total and we have successfully defended every time we have scored this high. That is an awesome record that no other country can match.
To make it to the semis, we have to beat England (or tie or share a no-result). We’re currently level on points with Sri Lanka but so far behind on net run rate that we can’t overtake them except on points. We have had little trouble with England in ODIs recently, but they are the form team of the competition.
And we should so play Jesse Ryder. He’s awesome when he’s injured.
After so many dismal ODI showings in the last few weeks, who would have thought that it could all come together so well in one game.
It was nice to see the message about partnerships getting through in the previous game against the Warriors, but the 95-run Guptill-Taylor partnership was the only good thing to come out of that match. But this morning, we had some decent partnerships, then a wagging tail and then some unholy destruction with the ball. 103-run victory.
But, let’s not read too much into this. Given the terrible performances of late, this win could just be a fluke. However, it does make the Champions Trophy more interesting because of the possibility of another fluke.
New Zealand backed up their good win in the 1st 20-20 with a commanding win last night. 22 runs in the end – that’s about 3 overs worth. Great performances all round really, but particularly Ryder’s 52 off 37 and Bond’s 3-18.
A clean sweep against the ICC World 20-20 runners up in their own backyard, especially after being dicked in the tests, is best celebrated in song.
A very nice win by New Zealand. Defending 142 was quite an achievement and it took Vettori’s 2 for 11, Bond’s 4 runs in the 19th over and Oram’s hat-trick as well as the other contributions. It was a team effort really.
141 should not have been enough to win. Which raises the question, what is a winning score in a 20-20?
141 is the lowest score that New Zealand has ever defended and 142 is the lowest target Sri Lanka have ever failed to chase down. In fact, it is a bit of an outlier in the spectrum of results for both teams. If we discard last night’s game, then a figure of about 165 emerges as a boundary between winning and losing totals. Sri Lanka has never chased down a target greater than 165 and New Zealand has never defended a total less than 164 (barring last night’s game), having once failed and once succeeded to defend 164.
Edit: To make the point clearer, apart from last night’s game, Sri Lanka have chased down every total of 165 or less they have faced and failed to chase down every score higher than that, while NZ have successfully defended every total below 164 and failed to defend every total greater (and once failed and once succeeded to defend 164). There definitely seems to be some threshold of winnability in the 160s.
Pixies (playing in NZ in March, but Auckland is just so far away):
The Black Caps have sneakily slipped in another warm ups match, v. Netherlands. A 90-run thrashing. The sort of margin that shouldn’t be attainable in a 20-over match. This follows a 7-wicket victory over Ireland and a last ball win over Bangladesh, so on the face of it it looks like the team is improving, though the rankings of the opponents have decreased in each successive match. There will be a huge turn around in the quality of the opposition when we play the first official warm up tonight against India.
McCullum scored a good 62. Franklin bowled a great 3/10 off 4. But the game will probably be remembered as being the international debut of Dutch-stralian Renaissance man Dirty Dirk Nannes, so beloved by Cricket with Balls.
Cricinfo has been a bit faster in reporting on New Zealand’s second warm up match, against Ireland. Another win, blessedly, and much more convincing than the last-ball win against Bangladesh. A 7-wicket win with 3 overs to spare.
Taylor’s 74 off 36 was the stand out performance, of course. He’s developing a knack of hitting massive scores very fast; his 81* off 33 (along with Gilchrist’s 85 off 35) is quite conspicuous in the list of IPL high-SR knocks, amongst several relatively middling scores. However, Ryder’s 3/4 off 4, including 2 wickets off 2 balls, tore the Irish innings apart.
I’m not getting any results through the main channels, Cricinfo (Scorecard not yet available) or blackcaps.co.nz, but the news is coming in that New Zealand has beaten Bangladesh in their first warm up for the ICC World 20-20.
It seems that the game was an “unofficial” warm up, which pushes it right down the hierarchy. Still, the Bangladeshi fans were quite excited about the match as the last time they played an unofficial warm up against New Zealand was for the last 50-over world cup, in which they beat New Zealand and then went on and tore up their opponents in the official games. Many of the Bangladeshi fans on-line seem to be in England and thus someone was able to provide an almost ball-by-ball coverage on the BanglaCricket forum.
There is no proper scorecard as yet, though I have deduced the following highlights:
Bangladesh: 146/6, 20 overs
Shakib: 35
Riyad: 43
New Zealand: 147/6?, 20 overs – 2 runs scored off a misfield on the last ball
Guptill: 61 (at a good rate apparently)
McGlashan: 35
Here is an account of the match from an observer:
Bangladesh started very well aparently Tamim was on fire right from the word go according to Rabeed bhai. Zunaed is out of form full stop, he needs click soon as Tamim cant carry the opening partnership all the time
Next came Ash who after playing himself in hit beautiful six then gets out in the same over and if I am not mistaken the very next ball. Sakib was not out and joined by Mahmudullah Riyad. And from the very begining he started to middle the ball sweetly . Him and Sakib had good partnership and at onestage he out scored Sakib. Sakib then tried to accelerate the innings and after hitting a boundary was caught at long on by a Kiwi fielder who barely picked it up in front of him, it was a good catch. Mushy then came and gone before I could count the number of sheeps on the far side of the ground. Mahmudullah then top edged the ball , he was unlucky not to get a fifty. Well done to him. Hard work that he put in during picnic cricket last year is paying dividends. Mash was not as explosive as we know him he did not try to through kitchen sinks like he normaly do. He played more controlled shot. Naeem had only few balls to face he hit one good six. New Zealand really bowled tight at the end of the innings other wise score would have reached beyond 155+.
New Zealand innings: In came Gupthill and started hitting one six per over, when the score was 50 I think Gupthill already had 40 odd runs. It was Ash who changed the course of the game ater coming to bowl the 8th over (or was it 9th) of the match. He started with a wide but managed to get Broom out LBW. Styris then was briliantly ran out I was so excited I did not even saw who the fielder was. New zealand then went past 100 run on or around 13 over mark with the loss of 2 wicket. I was already giving up hope and thought the game would be over by 17 or 18 over mark. 2 more wicket fell in the quick succession. it was 111/4 then came Naeem to bowl the 17 th over and his first ball was wide which went for 4. His over cost 13/14 runs. I think that was when we gave the game back to kiwis.
Rasel bowled well for last over apart from that 6 of the 3rd ball. Last ball 2 run needed. Mash slipped while fielding what would have been 1 run became 2.
So, a first-up unofficial warm-up last-ball win. Jolly good.
It has taken qualifying for the finals to get me to finally post on the Women’s World Cup. Shame on me.
The White Ferns beat Pakistan today by 223 runs to qualify for the final of the Women’s Cricket World Cup. They actually qualify top of the table, as England, who have led the tournament until now, were beaten by Australia.
Their path to the final was as follows:
Def. Aus by 13 runs D-L
Def. WI by 56 runs
Def. SA by 199 runs (dismissing SA for 51 runs)
Loss to Eng by 31 runs
Def. Ind by 5 wickets
Def. Pak. by 223 runs (2nd wicket partnership of 262, Suzie Bates 168 off 105)
The final on Sunday should be an awesome game of cricket. Both New Zealand and England are very strong teams, playing very well. Both teams have batters with over 200 runs in the tournament, Claire Taylor (303 runs @ 75.75) and Caroline Atkins (211 @ 52.75) for England and Suzie Bates (273 @ 54.6) and Haidee Tiffen (249 @ 49.8) for New Zealand, as well as in form bowlers, such as Laura Marsh (Eng, 14 wkts) Aimee Mason (NZ, BB 4/2).
New Zealand’s record against England is very good, but of late England has been the stronger team, having beaten us in 4 out of the last 5 completed matches. So let’s hope for a turn around. (Let’s also hope that Cricinfo cover the game properly. Today’s game was only intermittently updated.)
A most consoling of consolation wins. NZ defeat India by 8 wickets with 118 balls remaining. Not just a win, but a thumping. A dramatic turn around. It is in keeping with this series that the game should firstly be rain affected and secondly be so one-way.
The first three completed matches were determined by India’s strength, a powerhouse batting line up that can put any game beyond reach. Whereas tonight’s match showcased New Zealand’s strengths, difficult bowlers who can keep the score down and competent batsmen who can chase down almost any total.
It was a frustrating series, with all the rain, but an exhilerating series, with over 2000 runs scored at about 6.5 an over. There were some amazing performances. Sehwag was a sensation of course, in his most devastating series performance to date. 299 runs, 74.75 average, 150.25 strike rate. Tendulkar was masterful too, with the highest score of the series of 163. Ryder also with his 224 runs at 56.25 by 106.63 deserves to be lauded.
Best finish to a 20-20 that I’ve ever come across. Amazing last two overs: a wickets, 23 runs, a near walk-off, winning run scored off a dropped catch.
And frankly, after the shenanigans of their administrators today, it is only fair that India get beaten. (Eat a bag of dicks, BCCI!)
Old Crow Medicine Show (playing NZ next month; anyone going?):
